Do-Not-Resuscitate Legal and Ethical Issues Essay

Do-Not-Resuscitate: Legal and Ethical Issues Most cultures value life and bringing persons back from the dead is a popular subject of many fictional books. However, as technology evolves and the story of Frankenstein reborn with a bolt of lighting has come true with the external or implanted defibrillators, the natural process of death slows as much of society gains the knowledge to live longer than nature intended. The Red Cross Association taught many organizations like the girl and boy scouts the methods of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, a manual manipulation of the heart, as life saving methods for drowning, electrocution or heart attacks. First aid for laypersons to save lives as well as†¦show more content†¦Autonomy can override beneficence when life-support is withdrawn (Prozgar, 2010). In addition, when a physician takes the position of withdrawing life-supporting equipment, the principle of non-maleficence is severed. S ince helping patients die violates the physician’s virtue of duty to save lives,† distributed justice is served by releasing a room in the intensive care unit for a patient who has a higher chance of resolving their medical problems (Pozgar, G. 2010). There are so many inflict fuzzy gray areas and ideas about conflicting DNR policies that political disputes had to go to the courts to sort out the issues legally. Though ethics committees have been helpful, scores of physician-patient disagreements end up in the U.S. court system with inconsistent results. The states adopted individual â€Å"statutes regulating DNR orders and their provisions vary in analysis throughout the U.S.† (Bishop, Brothers, Perry amp; Ahmad, 2010). One ethical dilemma that is constant in emergency rooms, the intensive care unit and terminally ill persons is a futility of treatment. In the case of CPR/DNR, New York State wanted to enact a law that describes the decisive responsibilities of the patient, and the family or surrogate, and physician. â€Å"In April 2003, the New-York Attorney General asserted that the DNR law would require a physician to obtain a consent of the patient’s health care surrogate before entering a DNR order, even when the physicianShow MoreRelatedEthical and Legal Concerns for Emergency Room Physicians Essay1153 Words   |  5 PagesThere are unique ethical and legal obligat ions of the Emergency Room Physician. Commonly faced issues include patient â€Å"dumping†, organ donation, and Do-Not Resuscitate orders. These issues have ethical and legal considerations for the Emergency Room Physician in regards to their responsibilities and actions. 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